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Agree with your points. There is a big difference between hype and actual change. That some hardcore fans want their favorite language to take over, is far di

by Tozen 4y ago

Agree with your points. There is a big difference between hype and actual change. That some hardcore fans want their favorite language to take over, is far different from their language being anywhere near to surpassing or replacing C or being at the top. C is more than just another language, it's a quasi protocol that other languages communicate among each other with. Sorry to say, but neither Rust or Zig are likely to ever reach that level of popularity, nor are other languages going to create FFIs for them to that extent. Another way to look at this. People run around saying Object Pascal/Pascal/Delphi is a "dead" language (despite how its still widely used), yet it stays around #15 on the TIOBE index, and has done so for years. Rust has barely reached #20 on that ranking site and various others. Zig is nowhere to be seen on various rankings and has yet to reach 1.0, though its going on 8 years into its development. These languages have yet to catch up to and surpass so-called "dead" Object Pascal/Pascal, much less have any shot at C, debatably in the next 10 years or ever.

heywhatupboys 4y ago
> yet it stays around #15 on the TIOBE index, not a snowman's chance that "Object Pascal/Pascal/Delphi" is, by ANY measure, in top 15 programming languages by usage or importance in 2023...
- Tozen 4y ago
  Instead of just thinking about maybe only the USA or a favorite site that one might like, look at it from a wider and world perspective. You have entire school systems of various countries that use Delphi/Object Pascal. South Africa, Turkey, Jamaica, Russia, etc... To include Embarcadero is very aggressive in its outreach to schools and pushing its software and licenses, to the tune of many millions of copies (and many years). There are reasons why Embarcadero and Delphi are still very much around. There are numerous dialects, IDEs, compilers, and interpreters of Object Pascal/Pascal all over the place (including for embedded and numerous platforms). Delphi (including Turbo Pascal nostalgia), Oxygene, Free Pascal/Lazarus/CodeTyphon, PascalABC, Pascal Script, DWScript, etc... There are still tons of YouTube videos, books, and websites that are Delphi/Object Pascal/Pascal related. Millions upon millions of lines of code, that people still maintain, or are being produced by small businesses, independents, hobbyists, etc... The sum total of it, plus the years that Pascal/Object Pascal has been around, means a much greater penetration and usage than many people realize, and much more than the recently trendy or fad languages people might be thinking of. As much as people might have recently started talking about Rust or Zig on "hip" or "techie" sites, the languages are simply not that known or used to such an extent outside certain circles. Rust and Zig are not being taught like Pascal/Object Pascal was and still is in schools. They haven't been as widely written about or have as many books out about them. They aren't used as much, trusted, or relied upon. A lot more people than one might think, are on the fence, undecided, or only seldomly experimenting with them or something else. Even more, for a language to reach wide spread usage, takes more time and a lot more years than many are aware of or will admit it takes.

by Tozen 4y ago

heywhatupboys 4y ago

> yet it stays around #15 on the TIOBE index, not a snowman's chance that "Object Pascal/Pascal/Delphi" is, by ANY measure, in top 15 programming languages by usage or importance in 2023...

Tozen 4y ago
Instead of just thinking about maybe only the USA or a favorite site that one might like, look at it from a wider and world perspective. You have entire school systems of various countries that use Delphi/Object Pascal. South Africa, Turkey, Jamaica, Russia, etc... To include Embarcadero is very aggressive in its outreach to schools and pushing its software and licenses, to the tune of many millions of copies (and many years). There are reasons why Embarcadero and Delphi are still very much around. There are numerous dialects, IDEs, compilers, and interpreters of Object Pascal/Pascal all over the place (including for embedded and numerous platforms). Delphi (including Turbo Pascal nostalgia), Oxygene, Free Pascal/Lazarus/CodeTyphon, PascalABC, Pascal Script, DWScript, etc... There are still tons of YouTube videos, books, and websites that are Delphi/Object Pascal/Pascal related. Millions upon millions of lines of code, that people still maintain, or are being produced by small businesses, independents, hobbyists, etc... The sum total of it, plus the years that Pascal/Object Pascal has been around, means a much greater penetration and usage than many people realize, and much more than the recently trendy or fad languages people might be thinking of. As much as people might have recently started talking about Rust or Zig on "hip" or "techie" sites, the languages are simply not that known or used to such an extent outside certain circles. Rust and Zig are not being taught like Pascal/Object Pascal was and still is in schools. They haven't been as widely written about or have as many books out about them. They aren't used as much, trusted, or relied upon. A lot more people than one might think, are on the fence, undecided, or only seldomly experimenting with them or something else. Even more, for a language to reach wide spread usage, takes more time and a lot more years than many are aware of or will admit it takes.